Gun Violence
Gun violence is a pretty big topic to take a whack at, so you should try to skinny it down into bite-size chunks. My suggestion: Let’s let the CDC study gun violence. They’re currently not allowed to, thanks to Rep. Jay Dickey (R-AR) sneaking some language into a big spending bill back in 1996. Call your senators and representatives and ask them to remove the restrictions and let the CDC study gun violence.

Why start here? The foundation to solving any problem is understanding it, and to adequately understand the gun violence problem in America, we need more information. Information we can’t get, because the CDC isn’t allowed to study the problem.

Net Neutrality
Via BattleForTheNet.com: “The FCC is repealing net neutrality, but we can stop them by using the Congressional Review Act (CRA). We need one more vote to win in the Senate, and we’re launching an Internet-wide push to get it.”

The FCC passed a rollback of net neutrality protections, but we can still get that reversed in Congress. There’s a great big day of action coming up on Feb. 27 to try to get one more vote in the Senate to pass the CRA resolution. If we can get that through the Senate, then it goes to the House.

What to Do & How to Do It

Call your senators and representatives. Use CallYourRep.co to get their numbers, or call the Congressional switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask for your senators’ and representative’s offices. (Remember, calls work better than anything else you can do. Keep it concise and polite. Then you can tweet, email, whatever.)

Need a script? Head over to 5Calls.org, where they have scripts and the phone numbers, all ready for you.

Visit BattleForTheNet.com and get signed up for the big push on Feb. 27, #OneMoreVote. There’s instructions there for what you can do to help.

“If you want total security, go to prison. There you’re fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking… is freedom.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower

LastPass was down first thing this morning, so that made getting basically anything done something of a trick. Maybe I should look into getting KeePass instead.

5 Things to Read Today (2/21/18)

The Conversation:5 questions to ask your aging parents’ doctors – Here’s a handful of handy tips for advocating for your elderly parents when they’re at the doctor. Trust me, if you haven’t dealt with it before, it gets complicated fast.

CNET:Conservatives outraged by reported #TwitterLockout – Twitter apparently went on a bot purge last night, infuriating the “deplorables.” It was pretty hilarious, actually. Hundreds of accounts crybabying about “censorship” because they were losing all the bots that followed them, livid that they’d been asked to verify their accounts were run by actual people, and so forth.

Merriam-Webster:Look, This Is a List of Fart Words. – Because we needed a palate cleanser after that last story, and because sometimes you just need need to giggle uncontrollably over something silly while also learning about words for farts.

We saw Black Panther over the weekend and it was amazing. I thought the action had a smidge too much shaky-cam and the CGI looked a bit plasticky in a couple of places, and Jim had a quibble with the idea of keeping the state of a whole nation completely secret, but these were pretty minor complaints and easily overlooked (I think) in the face of how awesome the film was as a whole.

Here’s your five articles for the day, all of which are good reads. The “Incredible Hulk” list, in particular, is hilarious, especially if you remember the show at all. One of the more important reads on the list is the one about dentistry, though. Seriously, you guys, the way we handle dentistry in the US is insane.

]]>3569On Relaxation – George Matthew Adamshttps://marcisischo.com/on-relaxation-george-matthew-adams/
Mon, 19 Feb 2018 16:00:55 +0000https://marcisischo.com/?p=3567“A cheerful frame of mind, reinforced by relaxation… is the medicine that puts all ghosts of fear on the run.”

]]>3567On Relaxation – Thomas Aquinashttps://marcisischo.com/on-relaxation-thomas-aquinas/
Fri, 16 Feb 2018 16:00:41 +0000https://marcisischo.com/?p=3564“It is requisite for the relaxation of the mind that we make use, from time to time, of playful deeds and jokes.”